USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume I > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01151 5183
Gc 974.7 D74H v. 1
22781423
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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HISTORY OF
THE GENESEE COUNTRY
(Western New York)
Comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates.
EDITED BY LOCKWOOD R. DOTY
VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED
1925 The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Chicago
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
FOREWORD 2278142
The region historically known as the Genesee Country is, broadly interpreted, co-extensive with Western New York, whose eastern boundaries may be fairly, if somewhat arbitrarily, drawn at Seneca Lake, and whose northern, western and southern borders are the outlines of the State. Within this domain lie the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steu- ben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, having an area of more than eleven thousand square miles and a population in the year 1920 of about one million six hundred and seventy-five thousand. In extent this district embraces nearly one-quarter of the State and one-sixth of its population. It is identical with the territory com- prising the original Phelps and Gorham Purchase, and here abode the Senecas, the most populous and warlike of the nations of the Iroquois League-the keepers of the Western Door of the Long House. It is an empire within itself, including fifteen counties; two hundred and eighty-one towns; one hundred and thirty-four incorporated villages, and fourteen cities, of which Buffalo and Rochester are the largest of the State outside of the Metropolitan district.
The annals of the Genesee Country are of surpassing interest and importance. Rich in legend; a narrative of constant and exciting activity in the period of aboriginal occupation; of event- ful years of pioneer life while hardy, courageous and forceful men were helping to build a nation, and a story of accomplish- ment down to the present day that has given to this country an extraordinary distinction.
These records have been preserved only piecemeal in local histories; the limitations of space in histories of the whole State have not permitted an adequate account of the Genesee Country and its people, and these volumes are presented in the belief that the time has come when their history should be written.
Torkaworth sol,
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyofgenesee01doty
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY 15 BY HERMAN LEROY FAIRCHILD. University of Rochester.
CHAPTER II.
ANCIENT LAND OF THE GENESEE 111
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER III.
THE FIELD OF ARCHEOLOGY IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY 121 BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER IV.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS 145
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER V.
THE RISE OF THE SENECA NATION, 1535 TO 1699 167 BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SENECAS IN THEIR OWN HOME LAND
191
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER VII.
A CENTURY OF PERPLEXITY, 1700-1800
223
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE WHITE MAN TAKES POSSESSION, 1783-1842
261 BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
vii
CHAPTER IX.
INDIAN PLACE NAMES OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY 285 BY ARTHUR C. PARKER, F. A. E. S., Member N. Y. State Board of Geographic Names.
CHAPTER X.
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION OF 1779 317
BY ARTHUR WOODWARD BOOTH.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GENESEE COUNTRY
339
BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE 351 BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HOLLAND PURCHASE 389
BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BIG TREE TREATY
405
CHAPTER XV.
THREE REMARKABLE WOMEN
433
BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
XVI.
THE WAR OF 1812 455
BY ARTHUR C. PARKER. viii
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WAR OF 1812. (Continued.) .499
BY ARTHUR C. PARKER.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COUNTY OF ONTARIO 537
CHAPTER XIX.
THE COUNTY OF MONROE 617
CHAPTER XX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: THE PIONEER ERA 663
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: JUDICIARY AND BAR 701
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: EDUCATION 715
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: MILITARY 741
CHAPTER XXIV
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: CHURCHES
763
CHAPTER XXV.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: CIVIC DEVELOPMENT 1
805
CHAPTER XXVI.
825
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: BANKS
ix
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: THE PRESS. 837
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY .847
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: MEDICAL PROFESSION 855
CHAPTER XXX.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: INDIANS AND EARLY SETTLEMENT 861
CHAPTER XXXI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: ORGANIZATION AND MISCELLANEOUS .887
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: TOWNS 897
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: EDUCATION
947
CHAPTER XXXIV.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: RELIGION 951
CHAPTER XXXV.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: TRANSPORTATION
969
CHAPTER XXXVI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: EARLY COURTS AND LAWYERS 973
X
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: MEDICAL 983
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: INDUSTRIES 989
CHAPTER XXXIX.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: BANKS 997
CHAPTER XL.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: NEWSPAPERS 1003
CHAPTER XLI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: MILITARY
1015
CHAPTER XLII.
THE COUNTY OF ALLEGANY
1033
CHAPTER XLIII.
OIL AND GAS IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY
1059
BY LEWIS H. THORNTON, President of New York State Oil Producers Association.
CHAPTER XLIV.
1111
THE COUNTY OF GENESEE
CHAPTER XLV.
1147
THE COUNTY OF NIAGARA
CHAPTER XLVI.
1191
THE COUNTY OF CATTARAUGUS
xi
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE COUNTY OF WYOMING 1207
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE COUNTY OF STEUBEN. 1223
CHAPTER XLIX.
INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS WITH AN HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF STEU- BEN COUNTY 1241
BY REUBEN B. OLDFIELD.
CHAPTER L.
THE COUNTY OF WAYNE
1311
CHAPTER LI.
THE COUNTY OF ORLEANS
1341
CHAPTER LII.
THE COUNTY OF SCHUYLER 1359
CHAPTER LIII.
THE COUNTY OF CHAUTAUQUA 1367
CHAPTER LIV.
THE COUNTY OF ERIE: CITY OF BUFFALO 1409
CHAPTER LV.
THE COUNTY OF YATES
1417
CHAPTER LVI.
THE COUNTY OF CHEMUNG. 1421
xii
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SURFACE OR AREAL GEOGRAPHY OF WESTERN NEW YORK (Plate 1).
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THE GENESEE COUNTRY
CHAPTER I. GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY.
BY HERMAN LEROY FAIRCHILD University of Rochester.
Western New York has been aptly called the Garden of the World. Its beauty and fertility justify the appellation. In rich- ness of soil and variety and abundance of earth products; in favorable climatic conditions; in diversity of physical features and scenic beauty; and in the character of its people with their institutions and industries, the area may rightly claim superior- ity. And the district of the Genesee is the choicest part, the fruit and flower corner of that garden.
For these material excellencies the Genesee region has long been famous, but the unusual scientific features have not been fully recognized. In several geologic and physiographic char- acters central and western New York may challenge the world. The series of twenty parallel valleys, holding twelve beautiful lakes, is unequaled and the story of their making is a drama in the geologic history. The display of oval, ice-built hills between Rochester and Syracuse is the finest group of drumlins in the world. The Genesee Valley has the most varied and complicated drainage history of any river basin. The display of rock strata in the canyons of the Genesee and Niagara rivers is unsurpassed for clearness and perfection of the geologic record, and is classic in geologic literature. In its northward course, entirely across New York, with its three splendid canyons and six cataracts, the Genesee River is unique.
All the physical features of the Genesee region are the effects of geologic processes. Its soil fertility and agricultural advan- tages; its mineral deposits; its surface relief of valley, plain and mountain ; its lakes and rivers and cataracts; and its singular scenic charm are all the product of nature's forces working cease-
15
16
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
lessly through many millions of years. The story of that activity is the geologic history. Through immeasurable later time the rivers have carved their valleys in the solid rocks, with the aid of rain and frost and the chemical action of the atmosphere. But the rocks were formed in an earlier era of vast duration, having been deposited in ancient seas which covered the wide spaces of what is now western New York. The waves and tides of those ancient waters spread out the sediments of sand and clay and lime in horizontal layers which are now consolidated into the hard rocks. Subterranean forces have subsequently lifted the marine rock-strata out of the sea, and high in the air, to an alti- tude over 2,000 feet.
Our story, therefore, divides naturally into two great eras, first, the immensely long time of submergence in the shallow inland (epicontinental) seas, and second, the long era of uplift and of exposure to the destructive forces of the atmosphere.
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY.
The geologic story of the Genesee region can not be told in simplicity for easy reading. The history is involved in that of the larger territory of eastern Americ?, and in some difficult geologic problems. Dealing with vast lengths of time and with conditions very unlike the present, a demand is made on the con- structive or scientific imagination of the reader, requiring an appreciation of conditions and events far beyond the range in experience and in study of most readers of these lines. For ex- ample, the story of the Rochester canyon of the Genesee River, the very latest event, requires not only an understanding of the nature of stream erosion but the recognition of the interfering action of a continental ice-sheet (the Quebec Glacier) ; the pres- ence of high-level glacial lakes; the later presence of sea-level waters; the final presence of Lake Ontario as the latest water- level limiting the river erosion; and during all the time of erosion of the canyon the land was being uplifted, with some tilting of the surface. (See No. 52 of the appended list of writings and plate 35.) The serious study of the chain of cause and effect leads clear back to the method of formation of the globe. How-
CHEMUNG
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PORTAGE
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GENESEE PYRITE (TULLY)
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LAKE ONTARIO
CLINTON
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QUEENSTON
GENESEE VALLEY ROCK STRATA (Plate 2). Vertical north and south section; looking eastward,
1-Vol. 1
GYPSUM
18
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
ever, the writer will try to tell the story as simply and clearly and with as few technical terms as possible.
The earlier part of the history, while the region was generally beneath oceanic waters, the era of submergence and sedimenta- tion, will not be described in detail, because the records, rocks and fossils, are not everywhere available for study. But the second era, the time since the region was permanently raised out of the sea and subjected to the familiar agencies of the atmo- sphere, has educational value and will be discussed more fully. The following tabulation gives the outline or summary of the long geologic history. The geologic names of the time divisions are given on page 25.
DIVISIONS OF THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY
A.
Era of prevailing Submergence, with rock-formation, or Sedimentation.
1. Burial of the region under shallow (epicontinental) seas, from Cambrian to Devonian time; with prevailing slow sub- sidence, and deposition of thousands of feet of rock-forming sediments. Some intervals of exposure to the atmosphere, with surface erosion.
Tens of millions of years.
2. Continuous exposure of the area to the atmosphere, with land erosion; from the Devonian Period to the Pleistocene Pe- riod (Glacial time).
Tens of millions of years.
B.
Era of uplift, and exposure to atmospheric conditions, with Erosion
and production of the present surface features. Physiography
3. The Glacial Period. The area buried under thousands of feet of ice (Quebec Glacier).
Hundreds of thousands of years.
4. The present, Post-Glacial, episode of re-exposure to the atmosphere, with renewed rock destruction and land erosion. Tens of thousands of years.
INTERPRETATION OF THE GEOLOGIC RECORD.
The reader may wish to know how the long-ago events and conditions can be learned or deciphered. The translation of the. rock-record is not difficult, in its general features.
All the rock strata of our region, at least as far as now recog- nized, are beds of detritus laid down in the sea. This is an evi- dent fact from the great abundance of marine fossils contained in the rocks. The materials of the deposits were derived from
المسجد
Latworth Doty
LOWER SILURIC (UPPER MEDINA-EDGEWOOD)
MIDDLE SILURIC (ROCHESTER-OSGOOD)
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
10 CH YM.IS SCHLCHERT 1OM
B# CHARLES SCHULMERI HUY
1
2
MIDDLE SILURIC (LOUISVILLE)
UPPER SILURIC (LOWER SALINA)
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOORAPHY
By CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 1900
By CHARLES SCHUCHERT. 1000
3
4
CHANGES IN SILURIAN GEOGRAPHY (Plate 3).
Produced by up-and-down movements, or changes of level of the continental surface. The unshaded areas are dry land. The shaded areas are flooded by oceanic waters (epicontinental seas). The direction of the lines indicates the connecting ocean, Pacific, Arctic, Atlantic or equatorial. This is determined by the nature of the fossils.
Louisville time, Map 3, is equivalent to the Lockport of western New York.
20
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
the erosion of neighboring areas of exposed land. The earth's surface nearly everywhere is in slow up or down movement, and the oscillations of level carry wide areas beneath the sea, only to re-elevate them at some later time. This does not necessarily mean that continents and oceanic areas ("basins") fully change places. Submerged portions of the continent are no less a part of the geologic continent because below sea-level, or not "dry land". Whether some portion of the continent (the geologic con- tinent) is above or below the ocean water depends merely on a slight vertical change of position with reference to the plane of the ocean's surface. These changes in the ancient geography of North America are illustrated in plates 3, 4. All the rocks of western New York, and all the marine strata of the United States, were deposited in similar invasions of the continent by shallow oceanic waters. Today the continent is mainly above sea level, but Hudson Bay is a present example of a shallow inland or epicontinental sea.
When an area is beneath an inland sea, rock-forming de- posits are accumulated on the sea bottom. When above the water the area suffers erosion, and the product of the wastage is carried away by streams and winds to form contemporaneous aqueous deposits in some neighboring submerged area. A series of rock strata proves submergence, but not necessarily continuous sub- mergence, as there may be gaps or breaks in the strata (dis- conformity). Such breaks in the stratigraphic record, or absence of rocks representing a time division, generally proves exposure to the air, or an erosion interval.
The physical conditions of submergence are indicated by the character of the deposits. Gravel or coarse sands imply vigorous current or wave action, and hence relatively shallow water, and usually near-shore location. Fine sand implies less velocity of transportation, usually greater depth, and probably greater dis- tance from the dry land. The finest materials, silt and clay, can be deposited only in quiet water, and if of wide extent such deposits suggest considerable depth of far-spread water.
Limestones are formed of the pulverized material from the calcareous skeletons or framework of lime-secreting animals, like mollusks and corals. Such lime deposits may be formed at the localities where the animals are growing, like the coral limestone
LOWER DEVONIC (BECRAFT)
MIDDLE DEVONIC (MIDDLE ONONDAGA)
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
BA CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 1000
B) CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 1000
1
2
MIDDLE DEVONIC (LATE HAMILTON)
UPPER DEVONIC (ITHACA-CHEMUNG)
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
NORTH AMERICAN PALEOGEOGRAPHY
By CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 1000
By CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 1900
3
4
CHANGES IN DEVONIAN GEOGRAPHY (Plate 4).
Produced by up-and-down movements, or changes of level, of the continental sur- face. The unshaded areas are dry land. The shaded areas are flooded by oceanic waters (epicontinental seas). The direction of the lines indicates the connecting ocean, Pacific, Arctic, Atlantic or equatorial. This is determined by the nature of the fossils.
Map 1 shows why western New York has no strata of the lower Devonian.
22
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
now forming along the reefs in tropic seas, requiring pure water and vigorous waves. An illustration is found in the quarries in Onondaga limestone at Lime Rock, east of LeRoy, where the coral detritus buried great masses of the standing coral, and in the coralline reefs in the Clinton limestone between the Genesee and Niagara rivers (plate 11). More commonly the lime detritus is far-borne by the ocean currents and dropped in quiet water as a fine-grained organic sediment or compact limestone. When the calcareous sediment is mingled with clayey material derived from the wastage of land areas, a rock of variable composition is produced, sometimes a clayey limestone and sometimes a limey shale.
Deposits laid in deep water and hence beyond the reach of wave effect have a finely laminated structure, due to the very slight variation in the rate of deposition. On the other hand, shallow-water deposits are marked by a variety of beautiful structures, produced by shifting winds, waves and currents, such as may be seen on the shores of lakes and seas. These are wave- ripples, wave-ridges, wave-lines, oblique bedding, rill-marks, flow-structures, etc. The depth, temperature and salinity of the water are indicated by the nature of the organic remains (fossils) preserved in the deposits.
Such shallow water and beach structures are abundant in many rocks of the Genesee region, especially the sandstones, as the Medina, Portage, and Chemung. The reader can easily study the beach structures and markings in the process of their forma- tion on the beach of Lake Ontario and can then visit a Medina sandstone quarry and find precisely similar features made far back in Silurian time. (See paper No. 5.)
GEOLOGIC TIME DIVISIONS.
The term "geologic time" is understood to cover only that trifling bit of eternity which has left a visible record in the surficial crust of the earth. And this geologic time with its hun- dreds of millions of years leads us back into the shadows of uncertainty, while farther back is the unfathomable abyss of Pregeologic, or Cosmic, time.
The following table, to be read from the bottom upward, cor-
IRON VORE
LOWER CLINTON LIMESTONE (Plate 5)
With bed of hematite iron ore, about one foot thick. Rochester canyon, Maplewood Park.
25
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
responding to the succession of the rock strata, gives only the greater time divisions. The subdivisions, or more local applica- tion or relating to our region, will be considered later.
It will be seen that the rock record of western New York in- cludes only two periods in full, the Silurian and the Devonian, with uppermost (latest) beds of the Ordovician and the earliest deposits of the Mississippian. While the Silurian and Devonian periods represent several millions of years, they are yet only a minor part of the Paleozoic Era, estimated at one-fifth.
GEOLOGIC TIME
Eras
Periods
Psychozoic
Recent Pleistocene
Piiocene
Miocene
Cenozoic
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Cretaceous
Comanchian
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Pennsylvanian
Mississippian
Devonian
Paleozoic
Silurian
Ordovician
Rock - Record of Western New York
Cambrian
Erosion interval
Keweenawan
Animikean
Proterozoic
Huronian
Erosion interval
Algoman Sudburian
Archeozoic
Erosion interval
Laurentian
Keewatin
THE LOCAL ROCK RECORD.
Southward from the shore of Lake Ontario the later record of the rock strata is exposed in the many ravines and river can-
Mesozoic
26
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
yons in the uplands, but the older record of our region is buried under these visible later strata, and beneath the water of Ontario. Yet we know much of the earlier history, for the drill has been pushed down through over 3,000 feet of the old strata, to near the crystalline base (No. 2 of the list of writings). Moreover, the rocks encountered by the drill beneath Rochester are the equivalent of the surface rocks over wide areas of eastern and northern New York, as well as westward in Ohio and other states. From the character and content of the rocks we may read the geologic history of the Genesee region from Ordovician time to the close of Devonian time.
The limestones, shales and sandstones of the Genesee region, of great total thickness, prove an equal amount of slow sinking of the area, because even the lowest and oldest strata were formed in shallow water. But the subsidence and sedimentation were not steady or continuous. Gaps in the sequence of the strata show that episodes occurred of uplift and exposure, with land erosion. The land movement was down-and-up, or oscillatory, but with a prevailing or net downthrow of several thousand feet. In the Rochester district the subsidence was probably 5,000 feet. The subsequent permanent uplift was perhaps 2,500 feet, with erosion and removal of toward 2,000 feet of rock. (Discussed below.)
Fortunately for the simplicity of our rock record, the region has never been involved in mountain-making disturbances, and the strata are only slightly tilted from their original nearly hori- zontal position. They now have a southward decline or "dip" averaging about 50 feet to the mile.
The figures for thickness given in the following table must not be taken as precise, nor as closely applicable to areas far east or west of the Genesee River. All of our sedimentary units are merely irregular lenses in shape, and in all directions eventually thin to zero, or change in composition to another kind of rock. Some of the rocks in the Genesee region do not occur eastward on the Syracuse meridian, while on the other hand the Helder- berg series of the Syracuse district are missing here (plate 4, map 1).
As illustrated in the following table, it is the rule among geologists to name the strata after localities where they are typically displayed, as this is noncommittal with reference to the
STRATA
Rochester
Clinton
Therolite
Medina
Queenston
ROCHESTER CANYON, GENESEE RIVER (Plate 6) View looking north from the Driving Park Avenue bridge
UPPER FALL OF THE GENESEE RIVER, ROCHESTER CANYON (Plate 7) View looking south. The New York Central Railroad crosses the river above the falls.
29
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
age or classification. On the same principle the groups of strata are named after areas of abundant occurrence.
THE ROCK SUCCESSION, OR STRATIGRAPHIC COLUMN, ON THE MERIDIAN OF THE GENESEE VALLEY
Theoretic Time Divisions
Estimated thickness,
Stratigraphic Units in feet.
Chautauquan
Chemung shales and sandstones 1200
Senecan
Portage shales and sandstones 900
Genesee shales 100
Hamilton shales and sandstone 750
Devonian
Erian
Marcellus black shale 50
Onondaga limestone 90
Erosion interval.
Monroan
Bertie waterlime
60
Camillus shale and gypsum
100
Syracuse shale and salt 1
600
Vernon red shale S
Pittsford shale
20
Silurian
Guelph dolomite
100
Lockport dolomite
Rochester shale 80
Clinton shales and limestones 80
Thorold white sandstone 3
Medina red sandstone and shale 50
--
Queenston red shale 1025
Cincinnatian
Oswego gray sandstone
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